Stacy Horn

I’m so insecure about my voice. It isn’t an awful voice, but it isn’t great. Last year, when John placed me at the back row at the end, the farthest possible point from him, the audience and everyone else, I was sure he thought he was sparing the greatest number of people from hearing me. Oh, and whenever a soprano is flat anywhere near me I’m sure everyone is going to think it’s me. Because of course everyone else thinks I suck too.

This year I’m back close to the front except I’m so far off to the side (or so it appeared) that I thought John was once again trying to keep my terrible voice away from people.

But last night at the dress rehearsal I discover I am standing next to our soprano soloist. He can’t think I completely suck if he put me there. I know he doesn’t think I have a great voice (which I don’t) because he never picks me for semi-choruses. This is when the composer dictates that only a small number of people sing, usually because he wants a haunting, ghost-like effect. There’s one tonight, for the sopranos and altos, and it’s the prettiest one I have ever heard. I was desperate to be chosen for it. And I wasn’t. Later I was glad. John has scattered those singers throughout the line-up so they’re on their own during that section. I would have been terrified. For people coming to hear us tonight, it’s one of the high-points of the piece.

There’s a lot of high points in this piece, though. I love Ralph Vaughan Williams, and A Sea Symphony is from beginning to end one great part after another. The possible sob moment for me will be when we sing: O thou transcendent. I’ll either be crying or grinning like a mad woman.

… he’s really most sincerely dead! (I couldn’t resist. That joke has probably already been made a half a billion times.) I took the picture below on the day that Obama announced that we killed bin Laden. It’s not meant to be ironic. I’m very much a peacenik. Mostly.

So, I can hear the helicopters already. What time is Obama supposed to be at the WTC? I want to go down there. What can I say, I still love my president.

I felt some compassion for George Bush when I heard he declined Obama’s invitation to join him at the WTC tomorrow. The man is a little bitter and has had enough. And maybe that’s the price you pay for the economy and getting us into Iraq, (and eroding our freedom and privacy and really, I could go on) but still. To go from standing in the rubble with a bullhorn vowing revenge, to where he is today, not even being able to show up. Oh how the mighty have fallen, as they say.

I am not one to revel in anyone’s downfall, however. Maybe someday he will manage a dignified return. Nixon did.

When I sent my camera to be fixed I asked them to check the focus, because for a long time I had trouble getting the pictures to be sharp. Well, they found something and fixed it and man what a difference. Look how sharp the Statue of Liberty is! And that’s I don’t know how far away, but it’s far!

He talked about energy, energy innovations, alternatives, energy in the future. He was just so seriously informed. Do I know as much about the things I research as he does about the things he investigates? (No, I don’t think so, I must admit.)

Yikes. I’m going to this all day conference downtown and I wanted to walk there and I just realized that to do that I have to jump into the shower and leave NOW. Bill Gates is the keynote speaker and he is going on at 9am.

Here’s a photograph from this weekend. This is actually from a discrete angle, because her dress was cut so you could see EVERYTHING. I thought I must be on Candid Camera or something. What was she thinking?? She knew because occasionally people would call out to her.